Research Guides: PY 316: Research Methods in Psychology: Find Sources

Get Sources

Interlibrary loan service enables students to borrow materials not available at the UAB Libraries from other libraries.

Document delivery service sends students electronic copies of articles from the UAB Libraries print journal collection.

Courier service allows students to request materials be moved between Lister Hill Library, Sterne Library, and the remote storage facility in the 801 Building.

Find Items

PsycINFO is a database for searching the psychological and behavioral sciences literature (1806 to present).

Below are tips for searching PsycINFO:

Boolean Operators – enter in lowercase or uppercase letters

AND		Use to find all of the terms and to get fewer results [default operator]
OR		Use to find any of the terms and to get more results
NOT		Use to find the first term but not the second term

Truncation – automatically finds plural from singular and applies variant spellings

*		Use to replace multiple characters anywhere in the term
?		Use to replace a single character anywhere in the term

Proximity

" "		Use to find the terms next to each other in the order given as a phrase
PRE/n		Use to find the terms within a specified number of terms (n) in order given
NEAR/n		Use to find the terms within a specified number of terms (n) in any order

Subject Terms – identify subjects and identifiers describing topic and use as terms in advanced search

Controlled Vocabulary – standardized terminology from the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms

The get full text option may retrieve an eprint. Eprints are digital versions of research papers that are accessible online and include preprints, postprints, and published versions.

Preprint = Draft of a research paper before peer review and publication in a journal

Postprint = Draft of a research paper after peer review but before publication in a journal

Published = Final version of a research paper published in a journal

Source: Indiana University Bloomington. (n.d.). Open scholarship: What is a preprint/postprint
version of a publication? Retrieved from https://openscholarship.indiana.edu/oa-faq#q5

PubMed is a database for searching the biomedical, health, and behavioral sciences literature (1950 to present). [research guide]

Below are tips for searching PubMed:

Boolean Operators – enter in UPPERCASE letters

AND		Use to find all of the terms and to get fewer results [default operator]
OR		Use to find any of the terms and to get more results
NOT		Use to find the first term but not the second term

Truncation – try without due to automatic term mapping

Use to replace characters at the end of the term

Proximity – try without due to automatic term mapping

" "

Use to find the terms next to each other in the order given as a phrase

Automatic Term Mapping – concepts are mapped to subject headings and searched as phrases and individual terms in all fields

NOTE: Truncation and proximity operators turn off automatic term mapping so may not want to use these strategies

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) – identify subjects describing topic and use as terms in advanced search

NOTE: Not all records in PubMed have MeSH terms so some results may be missing from subject searches

Controlled Vocabulary – standardized terminology from Index Medicus (MeSH database)

Scopus is a database for searching the life, health, physical, and social sciences literature (1960 to present). [research guide]

Below are tips for searching Scopus:

Boolean Operators – enter in lowercase or uppercase letters

AND		Use to find all of the terms and to get fewer results [default operator]
OR		Use to find any of the terms and to get more results
AND NOT		Use to find the first term but not the second term

Truncation – automatically finds plural from singular and applies word stemming and variant spellings

*		Use to replace multiple characters anywhere in the term
?		Use to replace a single character anywhere in the term

Proximity

" "		Use to find the terms next to each other in the order given as a phrase
PRE/n		Use to find the terms within a specified number of terms (n) in order given
W/n		Use to find the terms within a specified number of terms (n) in any order

Keywords – include all terms describing topic as records do not have subjects (controlled vocabulary)

Google Scholar is a tool for searching scholarly literature available on the web. [research guide]

Below are search tips for Google Scholar:

Boolean Operators – enter OR in UPPERCASE letters

AND		Use to find all of the terms and to get fewer results [default operator]
OR		Use to find any of the terms and to get more results
–		Use to exclude the term from results

Field Operators

author:		Use to search by author [author:"mw otto"]
site:		Use to search within a specific website [site:google.com] or domain type [–site:edu]

Word Order – first word ranked higher than second word and so on

Truncation – automatically applies word stemming unless searched as phrase

Proximity

" "		Use to find the terms next to each other in the order given as a phrase
*		Use as placeholder for term in a phrase ["cognitive * therapy"]

Advanced Search – specify how the terms should be searched, refine by author or source, and limit by date

Follow the instructions below to customize the settings for Google Scholar:

Go to Google Scholar.

Click on the options menu (#1) and select settings (#2).

Click on library links (#3) then search for UAB Libraries (#4), check the box next to Full Text @ UAB (#5), and save the setting (#6).

Follow the instructions below to check for full text access through the UAB Libraries:

Perform a search using Google Scholar.

Look for full text @ UAB link next to or below the result.

Don't see library link for some results. Click on expand icon and look for Get it @ UAB.